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Project Xpat: A Globetrotter's Thanksgiving

Linton Weeks

If you can't be with the holiday you love, love the holiday you're with.

Sarita Fae Jarmack, 25, who grew up in the United States, has already traveled to some 30 countries. Roaming the wide world over, she has discovered that it can sometimes be quite difficult even on this interconnected planet to touch base with her childhood traditions.

Videos of Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and slices of tofurkey, says Sarita, who now lives in Denmark, can be in short supply in certain far-off lands. So she makes-do at Thanksgiving time and adapts to the closest celebration she can find.

In Scandinavia, she has marked the holiday with "heavy blankets and the first sips of hot wine," In South Asia, she has danced in a red sari and celebrated the autumnal Dashain festival.

In any locale, she says, "though there may not be the traditions of warmth, smells and family from the U.S., there is always food to fill the bellies and warmth that can be found among friends wherever one is on the globe."

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We hope American expatriates will share photos of Thanksgiving celebrations and tables and gatherings from around the world. Please send them to us on Thanksgiving Day and over the long holiday weekend --at protojournalist@npr.org or post them using the hashtag #nprexpat. We will display as many as we can.